Questions by Cody “Micajah” Bye, Managing Editor

Answers by Darla Freeze, Associate Producer at SOE – Denver.



Just a few weeks ago, the Ten Ton Hammer team had the fantastic
opportunity to target="_blank">chat with Darla Freeze, an
associate producer at SOE
– Denver and the woman with the info when it comes to SOE
– Denver’s latest project, style="font-style: italic;">Champions of the Force.
While the first interview was full of fun facts, many questions were
still hanging in the air, so we got in contact with Darla one more time
to quiz her on the details of CotF.



Over the next few months, you can expect to see many articles popping
up about this online card game, and Ten Ton Hammer will be there to
give you all the latest information! Also, make sure you check out our
two sets of exclusive screenshots – href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/41119" target="_blank">one
of loot and the href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/41221" target="_blank">other
of actual in-game cards. Enjoy!



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Champions
of the Force is playable at Gen Con and Fan Faire.

Ten Ton Hammer: To start,
what sort of Champions
of the Force
information is being distributed to fans and
the press during Fan Faire and Gen Con? Will they be seeing playable
demos? What do you really hope to show off to people at these shows?




Darla Freeze:
Attendees at Gen Con and SOE’s Fan Faire will get to demo the
Star Wars Galaxies
Trading Card Game during the day in our expo areas. On Saturday evening
at Fan Faire we’re hosting a larger play session for
All-Access badge holders where they can spend even more time playing
the game and browsing through the cards.  We’re also
holding several panel sessions where we’ll talk about the
game design, plans for the future, and even show off some of the SWG
in-game items available from loot cards.



Ten Ton Hammer: In our
previous interview you mentioned that there will be several single
player campaigns that players will be able to participate in and enjoy
without getting into the multiplayer matches. Will these differ from
the single player campaigns we’ve seen in style="font-style: italic;">Legends of Norrath
?



Darla: Like style="font-style: italic;">Legends of Norrath,
there will be three difficulty settings and the story will define
specific win conditions for each scenario. In some you’ll
need to be more aggressive, while in others you’ll need to
focus on questing. So you’ll be required to use different
strategies throughout the campaign. A big difference is that in style="font-style: italic;"> Legends of Norrath
you can use any archetype you want in the scenarios. In style="font-style: italic;"> Champions of the Force
however, there are two campaigns, one for the light side faction and
one for dark side faction. You'll have to play Jedi or Rebel decks in
the light side campaign, and Imperial or Sith decks in the dark side
campaign.



Ten Ton Hammer: Although
we’ve talked about several aspects of style="font-style: italic;">Champions of the Force
,
one element we haven’t touched on is raiding. Will there be
multiplayer raids in CotF? If so, can you give us an example of a raid
boss players might encounter?



Darla: Just
like in Star Wars
Galaxies
there are ways to form a party to take on an NPC
in the trading card game. They’re called Heroic Encounters
and you will join up with other players, who must all play decks on the
same side of the Force as you, and go up against a powerful computer
opponent. If you succeed, each player in your group will earn a special
promo card. And with each new card set we plan to release more Heroic
Encounters.


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The
Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game will have a form of raiding.

Ten Ton Hammer: What kind
of avatars will players have in Champions
of the Force
? Will they be creatable characters like what
we see in Legends of
Norrath
? Or are you going to use characters like Luke
Skywalker or Darth Vader as the main avatars?




Darla:
Players will create their own avatar cards, but they can have Luke
Skywalker or Darth Vader as units in their deck. The created avatars
are ones that players create through the Deck Builder by selecting an
archetype, gender and race, and then determine their gametext and stats
through a series of questions about your avatar. Your avatar cards have
unique names and you can save up to 100 different avatar cards at a
time. In Champions of
the Force
we’re also introducing four new
characters, one from each archetype (Jedi, Rebel, Imperial and Sith)
and these will be your avatar cards in the starter decks.



Ten Ton Hammer: Can you
give us a nice little example of some of the combat characters that
players will use to defeat their opponents? Will we see any of the
really interesting characters like Jabba the Hutt or Prince Xizor or
those sorts?




Darla: In
the first set, some of the recognizable characters you'll see featured
on unit cards are Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa and
Maximillan Veers. Darth Vader is pretty powerful in the game (and he
makes a really cool sound effect when you play him).



Ten Ton Hammer: How do
you handle card rarity in Champions
of
the
Force? Do
players always receive a rare card in a pack? Or is it a little bit
harder to get cards like Darth Vader or Yoda in this game?




Darla: There
are three basic levels of rarity, not including foils or loot cards,
and all cards at the same level have the same rarity. Each booster pack
contains 1 Rare, 3 Uncommons and 11 Commons. If you find a loot card,
it replaces an Uncommon, and a foil card replaces a Common.



Ten Ton Hammer: In our
previous interview, you make mention that the card game follows the SWG
timeline. Exactly what does that entail? Will we be seeing characters
from the expanded universe like the Dathomir witches, Grand Admiral
Thrawn, or any of those characters?




Darla: The
SWG timeline takes place between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back
so we'll see Darth Vader, but we won't see Anakin Skywalker. However
we're not limited to what is just in the films. style="font-style: italic;">Star Wars Galaxies
is a rich game and has characters from the expanded universe.
Characters and creatures found in SWG could appear in the trading card
game.


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Interested
players will need to be SWG or former SWG players to enjoy Champions of
the Force.

Ten Ton Hammer: What kind
of options are there for characters to build
“theme” decks. Are we going to see class-based
cards like we did in Legends
of Norrath
? Like bounty hunter decks or Jedi decks?




Darla: There
are four archetypes in the game: Jedi, Rebel, Imperial and Sith. Within
those archetypes you will be able to create class-themed decks, like
officer, medic, commando and spy decks for example. Your deck begins
with your created avatar card, and each new set will feature more
options for your created avatars.



Ten Ton Hammer: Will
there be a beta testing period for Champions
of the Force
like there was for style="font-style: italic;">Legends of Norrath
?
When would that begin? How can players get involved?



Darla: There
will be a limited, closed beta period starting this week where SOE Fan
Faire attendees will get a chance to play it first.



Ten Ton Hammer: Is there
anything else you can tell the Ten Ton Hammer readers and style="font-style: italic;">Champions of the Force

fans?



Darla: Look
for the official launch date announcement later this month! The
stand-alone Star Wars
Galaxies
: Trading Card Game client is free to download.
While an active or former subscription to style="font-style: italic;">Star Wars Galaxies
is required to purchase cards and unlock all of the game features, the
tutorials and 1v1 Practice Games are available to everyone. If
you’re a fan of Star
Wars
I hope you’ll come check it out.


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Champions of the Force Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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